Statements by Professional Organizations

The Royal College of Psychiatry in the U.K. will mail
members of the media a free reprint of the recent article "Recovered memories
of childhood sexual abuse: Implications for clinical practice" which was
published in The British Journal of Psychiatry, April 1998, Vol.
172, pp. 296-307. The article is a comprehensive literature review which
demonstrates the lack of evidence for massive repression of memory and
highlights the dangers of and lack of scientific support for each technique
which is advocated by so-called 'memory recovery therapists.' For press
copies of the paper or further information contact:

Anyone who believes the myth of satanic ritual abuse and any law enforcement
professional investigating sexual abuse allegations should read this report.
Writing from the law enforcement perspective, Lanning notes that in the
more than 12,000 investigated cases involving allegations of satanic ritual
abuse, no evidence to support the accusations has ever been found. He provides
a clear definition of the four characteristics (or "dimensions") which
are common to cases he defines as allegations of "multidimensional child
sex rings," namely multiple young victims, multiple offenders, fear as
the controlling tactic, and bizarre or ritualistic activity. He points
out that the claims made by ritual abuse believers involve activities (human
sacrifice of large numbers of people, breeding of babies for sacrifice,
etc.) that would be impossible to keep secret if they actually occurred
on the scale and in the frequency described by believers.